


Non-Constant Functions

by foolyoulove



Series: Domestic Bliss and Detours [6]
Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Child Prodigy, Family, Gen, Kid Fic, Parenthood, Pepperony Week, background pepperony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-21
Updated: 2014-06-21
Packaged: 2018-02-05 15:56:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1824046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foolyoulove/pseuds/foolyoulove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm your kid, and you're a genius, and what if I'm not smart enough?”</p><p>Wherein Tony Stark works on breaking the cycle of Genius Daddy Issues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Non-Constant Functions

**Author's Note:**

> I pretty much missed the boat on 2014's [Pepperony Week](http://pepperonyweek.tumblr.com/), but I figured I'd tack a little something onto this series in honor of the final day's prompt: "Family."
> 
> ...I can't believe it's been over a year since I last posted something new to AO3. :O

Tony watched from the couch as his daughter unceremoniously dropped her school bag by the door with a heavy sigh and started to head into the living room. When Audrey saw him sitting on the couch, though, she abruptly changed trajectory toward the kitchen.

Tony raised an eyebrow and caught Happy's eye, who just shrugged, gave a half-hearted salute, and backed silently out the door. 

“Audrey?”

She stiffened and stopped in her tracks. “Yeah?”

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, fine.” Her body language said the exact opposite.

“Mhm,” he intoned, skeptically.

“Dad, I said everything's fine.” She was an even worse liar than Pepper.

He patted the couch next to him. “Sit. Stay.”

Audrey scoffed at him, but relented in heading towards his direction. “Charming, Dad.”

“Did you actually want a snack, or was the kitchen just part of avoiding me and whatever it is that you don't want to talk about?”

“I don't need anything,” she said as she flopped onto the couch.

“Apple juice it is, then,” he countered, rising from the couch and heading towards the kitchen himself. His first approach to uncomfortable situations was still to offer a favorite drink—but, these days, he stocked more options that didn't have ‘Proof’ or ‘ABV’ anywhere on the label.

“So, tell me what the angst is for,” Tony said, opening a bottle of juice and handing it to his daughter as he returned.

Audrey hesitated. “Is Mom home?”

“She won't be until after your bedtime, so you're stuck with me.”

Audrey continued to look at the floor, the ceiling, the window—anywhere but at him. “I'd kind of rather talk to Mom about this,” she muttered.

“This isn't about _dating_ , is it?”

“No, Dad, geez.”

“Periods?”

“ _No_ ,” she spat out, mortified.

“Then yeah, you're stuck with me, because I'm not letting you mope until bedtime without you telling me what's up.”

Audrey huffed. “I got a lousy grade on a test.”

“Okay...” he prompted.

“It was a math test.”

“And?”

“And, I'm your kid,” she snapped. “And you're a genius, and what if I'm not smart enough?”

His shoulders slumped. “Jesus, Audie, _that's_ what you're worried about? You know you could need a calculator to do single-digit addition and I'd love you just the same. Also, that’s actually completely irrelevant, because you're eleven years old and tackling _differential equations_. You're still pretty far ahead of the curve, there, kiddo.”

“But apparently I'm not good enough, if I only got a ‘C.’” 

“Well, let me see what was on the test.” He waited as she produced some papers from her backpack, then briefly looked them over. “Huh, I see the problem. Nobody _fun_ actually enjoys solving diff eq’s analytically. You were probably bored.”

“But I want to like it,” she whined. “I liked learning calculus. This is just... way harder for me.”

“Do you actually like this stuff, or is that a manifestation of what you somehow think I want for you that I am now suddenly extremely worried is giving you some kind of complex that I was oblivious to?”

Audrey looked at him askance. “Dad, don’t you ever run out of air when you’re talking?”

“Okay, good deflection effort, but I would like a straight answer.”

“I like math for myself, not just for you.”

“You’re sure about that?”

She finally managed to look him in the eye. “I promise.” 

Tony let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. “Well, in that case, do you want me to help you figure out what went wrong?”

“Yeah,” she said, after a moment, “I think I'd like that.”

“You have pencil and paper in there?” he asked, gesturing toward her open backpack.

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Seriously?”

“Yep.”

“But, Dad, you _never_ figure stuff by hand.”

“There are a lot of cocktail napkins in this world that would disagree with you. When you get to numerical methods, then we'll get to do the really sweet stuff on the computer.”

“Fine. Can we have dinner before math, though?”

“Sure,” he answered. “What do you think, since Mom isn't here to tell us to eat our vegetables...?”

Audrey perked up. “Pizza?!”

“Works for me.”

She looked toward the ceiling with a grin. “Mr. JARVIS, our usual order please.”

**Author's Note:**

> My own math education topped out at fairly basic calculus (over ten years ago), so my husband the engineer graciously gave me a crash course in the language of differential equations. For background, as I understand it, solving diff eq's analytically is more "mathy," whereas numerical methods tend to focus more on real-world problems and would therefore likely be favored by an engineer like Tony. If any of you readers have advanced math education and this is all falling totally flat, just... forgive me, please.


End file.
